Jens Meijen is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Leuven. His research focuses on European right-wing populism, with particular attention for its relationship with diplomacy, cultural policy, democracy, and technology. More concretely, he has thus far published on the populist exploitation of the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU’s value-based cultural policy, and the anti-populist cordon sanitaire in Belgium. During his PhD, he has studied and taken seminars at the University of Oxford, Freie Universität Berlin, and Trinity College Dublin. He is currently in the start-up phase of an Artificial Intelligence consultancy and development company concentrating on ethical practices, predictive systems for international AI governance risks, and machine learning workflow optimization. He is also a journalist and editor for various Belgian media and an author at the Dutch publishing house De Bezige Bij, where he publishes books exploring the fragile equilibrium between humanity, technology, and nature.